Pâté De Campagne Recipes

PATE DE CAMPAGNE (COUNTRY PATE)

Steps:

• Set rack at lowest position in oven and preheat to 350°F Boil Cognac until reduced to 1/2 cup, about 1 1/2 minutes. Cool.
• Melt butter in heavy medium skillet over medium heat. Add onion and saute until soft and translucent but not brown, about 8 minutes.
• Combine ground pork and chopped bacon in large bowl. Using fork or fingertips, mix together until well blended. Add sauteed onion, garlic, 2 1/2 teaspoons salt, thyme, allspice, and pepper to bowl with pork mixture and stir until incorporated. Add eggs, cream, and reduced Cognac. Stir until well blended.
• Line 9x5x3-inch metal loaf pan with bacon slices, arranging 8 slices across width of pan and 3 slices on each short side of pan and overlapping pan on all sides. Using hands, lightly and evenly press half of meat mixture (about 3 1/4 cups) onto bottom of pan atop bacon slices. Arrange ham strips over in single layer. Top with remaining meat mixture.
• Fold bacon slices over, covering pate. Cover pan tightly with foil. Place pan in 13x9x2-inch metal baking pan and transfer to oven. Pour boiling water into baking pan to come halfway up sides of loaf pan. Bake pate until a thermometer inserted through foil into center registers 155°F, about 2 hours 15 minutes.
• Remove loaf pan from baking pan and transfer to rimmed baking sheet. Place heavy skillet or 2 to 3 heavy cans atop pate to weigh down. Chill overnight. DO AHEAD Can be made 4 days ahead.
• Place loaf pan with pate in larger pan of hot water for about 3 minutes. Invert pâté onto platter; discard fat from platter and wipe clean. Cut pate crosswise into 1/2-inch slices.

PATE DE CAMPAGNE

Steps:

• Cut ham slice into 1/4" strips. Cut the salt pork into1/8" slices and the slices into 1/8" strips.
• Put the shallot, bay leaf, thyme, Madeira and Cognac into a flat dish. (I use a pyrex square glass dish). Add the meat strips, cover and marinate 6 hours or overnight.
• Mix veal and pork and salt and pepper and refrigerate until ready to use.
• When ready to make pate, line a 4-cup mold (or 2 small molds) with bacon slices. Drain the liquid from the meat strips into the ground meat and mix (this is the sausage). Place a layer of sausage into the bacon-lined mold, then a layer of eat strips. Continue until all is used, ending with the sausage.
• Cover the top of the mold with strips of bacon cut to fit. Press down firmly into the mold. Cover tightly with foil, and set mold(s) into a water bath. Bake at 325 degrees F. for two hours.
• When done, remove from oven and place mold(s) in pan large enough to hold it and any overflow of fat. Weight down the top of the mold, using a foil wrapped brick or the like. Make sure the pate is pressed while still warm. When cool. refrigerate with the weight.
• When the pate is cold, turn it out of the mold(s), scrape away the congealed fat. A good French cook will save that fat to cook with--fries for example--it tastes great.
• Serve with cornichons and mustard and crusty bread.

PATE DE CAMPAGNE (COUNTRY-STYLE PATE)

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
• Combine the meat, liver, onion, garlic and parsley in a mixing bowl and blend well. Add the mixture, one-quarter at a time, to the container of a food processor and blend well. As each batch is processed, scrape it into a bowl. When properly blended, the mixture will be finer than hamburger. Add salt and pepper to taste.
• Combine the eggs, flour, cream and Cognac in a small mixing bowl and blend well with a wire whisk. Add this to the pork mixture and blend thoroughly.
• Select a pate mold large enough to hold the pate mixture (a mold with a two-quart capacity and measuring about 11 1/2 by 4 by 3 1/2 inches is suitable). Line it with very thin slices of fatback, letting the slices overlap the upper edges of the mold.
• Pour and scrape the pate mixture into the prepared mold. Smooth it over. Fold the overlapping slices of fatback over the top of the pate. Add additional thin slices of fatback so that the top is completely but not excessively covered.
• Cover the pate with a lid and place it in a heatproof baking dish. Pour warm water around the pate mold and place it in the oven. Bake one hour and 50 minutes to two hours or to an internal temperature of 160 degrees.
• Remove the pate from the oven and remove the mold from the water bath. Leave the lid on top of the pate. Let stand overnight at room temperature. When cold, serve sliced with cornichons.